he interposes in your behalf, and contrives a plan of emancipation adapted to your circumstances— if you are so lowered in your own esteem as to perceive nothing for you in the resources of combined humanity, nothing for you but in the condescension, and pity, and power of Him whose indignation you had provoked-and if in the midst of this self-reproach, this self-distrust, this selfabasement, you are ready to throw your fortunes entirely and unreservedly upon the merits of that dispensation which divine grace offers to you as your sole and all-sufficient refuge-then there is no insuperable barrier between you and the salvation which you need. The devices of God's wisdom become acceptable to you-the offers of his mercy become welcome to you-the hopes of his favour become precious to you-the whole manifestation of his redeeming love becomes available to you. And lying low at the foot of the cross and at the throne of grace, he beholds in you the very persons who are worthy, because you are willing and ready to receive, just as he has provided them, all the virtue which emanates from the cross, and all the blessings which, for its sake, are dispensed from the throne.

Humble yourselves, therefore, in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. He will rescue you from the degradation and wretchedness in which you are involved by your sins. He will elevate you to that place from which you had fallen

down, and in which it was the great purpose of his mercy to reinstate you, as a place of acceptance, and favour, and blessedness. He will pardon you through the atoning efficacy of that blood, to which your humility has guided you, in the exercise of faith, as the only means by which your guilt could be cancelled. He will sanctify you by that Spirit, for dependence upon and submission to whose divine influence you were prepared, by those lowly convictions which you cherished of your thorough depravity, and utter want of self-regenerating power. And after having communicated to you all the spiritual blessings and consolations which a profound sense of your need of them, and a believing and prayerful application for them to Him who alone has them to impart, had fitted you for at once receiving and enjoying, he will introduce you into that world of purity and bliss for which you have become meet by humbly placing yourselves under the direction, casting yourselves upon the grace, and surrendering yourselves to the disposal of God, who has put especial honour on them that are lowly in heart, and who, in the exercise of wisdom as well as of sovereignty, has decreed and declared that every one "that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

And as I would address the exhortation and the promise of the text to sinners, that they may be saved, so I would address it also to saints,

even in the most advanced stage of their progress towards glory. Humility lies at the very foundation of your Christian character and of your Christian hopes. And the moment that you fail in the cultivation of it, that moment your character is impaired and your hopes become unstable. Remember that God, in whom must be all your confidence, and from whom cometh all your expectation, "resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." Crush every rising of pride, therefore, that God may not turn away his regards from you, or may not set himself in opposition to you. And cherish a growing hu mility, that you may have a deeper feeling of your need of divine grace, and that you may supplicate it with greater earnestness, and that you may receive more liberal supplies of it from the fountain which alone can send it forth. Thus humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up-he will raise you higher and higher in the scale of spiritual excellence, and at last he will exalt you to his heavenly presence.

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SERMON VIII.

RELIGIOUS ZEAL.

REV. iii. 19.

"Be zealous."

IT is evident from the context that the zeal which is here recommended or enjoined has religion for its object. Now there are some who are mightily afraid of zeal as connected with religion. They have no great objection to the warmth and eagerness of feeling which that term implies being manifested in other departments of human activity. A zealous friend-a zealous teacher-a zealous patriot-are characters referred to with expressions of applause, and held up as examples for imitation. But the moment that zeal mingles with religion, then there is distrust, and apprehension, and disapproval. The zealous Christian is a person who, in the estimation of those we speak of, has lost some portion of his rationality, if not of his integrity; if not decried as a hypocrite, he is at least laughed at as a fool-whom,

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on the one supposition or on the other, they carefully avoid themselves, and against whom they with equal anxiety warn their families and their friends, as unworthy acquaintance, or as dangerous associates.

It is curious to observe how differently zeal in matters of religion is spoken of by these persons, and by the word of God. To its guidance they gravely affect to submit their judgment and their conduct. And yet it never throws out an insinuation, or utters a syllable that is unfavourable to religious zeal; never holds up those who are remarkable for that quality as deserving either of ridicule or reproach; never says any thing respecting them, as if they should be distrusted, or shunned, or even pitied, on account of it. On the contrary, it represents that quality as so essential, that we cannot do without it, exhorts us to acquire and to cultivate it, and condemns us if it finds no place in our heart and deportment. Christ is here introduced as rebuking the church of Laodicea for the want of it, and as commanding them to get that want supplied. And there is no circumstance either known or imaginable, which should prevent his language from being applied, with the same import, and the same authority, to the members of every church that presents to his eye the same character he discovered in the Laodiceans. If we have no zeal in religion, we are subject to his